I am wriggly by Michael Rosen. Illus. by Robert Starling

A wriggling rabbit leaps out at the readers and inside they follow their antics as they show their whiskers wriggling, then their ears, and how they wriggle on the chair and wriggle with the toy bear. Readers will have joined in with the zany movements by now, transported by Starling’s illustrations of just how wriggly the rabbit is. With a bright cheeky smile, they wriggle round and round, wriggle on the ground, while a change of pace sees them joggle and juggle, as they bobble in the boat, and ride the wobbly car. A change of words again sees them with their squiggly kite, and higgledy piggledy toys, and each change of words will be sure to keep the readers on their toes, listening intently to the rhythm and sounds of the new words if read aloud, and trying them out for themselves while reading alone. As their feet beat out a tune, they can’t stop wriggling, giggling, popping and hopping. But they say, they must stop otherwise they will burst. And so they do.

Children will adore reading about the wriggling rabbit, copying their antics as they read through the book, saying the words out loud, predicting the rhymes as they read, listening to the way it is read to them, and perhaps creating a video to match the words.

The exuberance of the text and movement in the illustrations will appeal to all those kids who cannot sit still and those who who would live  to be spontaneous.

The infectious words will be said over and over agin, children trying them out, working out what they mean, enjoying the humour in their depiction by Robert Starling. His illustrations are deceptively simple, showing the rabbit in various poses across the pages, making use of the white space to frame what the rabbit is doing. Colour pops up sparingly, giving it an impact and a wow when it appears, as with the balloons, and the toys and the socks. I love the last few pages with the rabbit wriggling across the white background, finally lying down exhausted, hopefully ready to sleep.

A wonderful story for the classroom or home where a wriggling child can be exercised into some down time.

Themes: Activity, Wriggling, Humour.

Fran Knight